Jordanna - Law

Name: Jordanna Wilson
Subject: Law
Year: 1st

What does your working week entail?

Lawyers generally have 1 (more often than not 2) set essays or problem questions each week to do in preparation for supervisions. For the 4 papers you take in the first year (criminal, civil, tort and constitutional) we have a supervision every other week, meaning you have 2 supervisions per week. Supervisions are usually in groups of 2 or 3, although in some subjects such as tort you may have classes which are basically large group supervisions with all the other lawyers from college in your year. In the first term you will have 11 hours of lectures per week (all in the morning I might add), with the amount of contact time being slightly less in the second term.

How easy was the transition from A-levels to the first year of your degree?

There’s no escaping the fact that law is a fairly intense degree which involves A LOT of reading of textbooks, journal articles and cases and the workload is certainly heavier than most people will have experienced at A-level. Another difference is that as with all degrees, you are expected to be much more independent. No one will be stood over your shoulder telling you what to do, when and how to do it. This said I haven’t found the transition to be too problematic. So long as you have a passion for your subject you will be motivated enough to plough through (and enjoy) the work and will find you naturally focus on the aspects of the course you find most interesting.

How easily can you fit social activities into your working week?

I generally find Monday- Thursday to be the most intense time of the week in terms of workload, as all of the mornings are taken up with lectures meaning most of the afternoon has to be spent reading or writing essays for supervisions. Luckily lawyers don’t have Saturday morning lectures so the end of the week and the weekend tend to allow study to be more flexible and you can fit work around socialising, playing sport and generally relaxing! In short if you plan your time well you can fit in a couple of nights out/trips to the bar without worrying about getting behind.
I’d definitely recommend joining the University Law Society as they lay on plenty of social activities (heavily subsidised by city firms) which allow you to meet lawyers from other colleges for example at Fresher’s drinks. Each November the society holds an annual ball (this year it was at Newmarket race course) which is also certainly an event not to be missed! 

What sort of things did you talk about in your interview?

After a question based on what I had written in my personal statement to ease me in, most of the subject interview was taken up by a discussion of topical issues and current legal affairs, my opinions on these etc...I was then given an unseen legal problem question which we discussed, this didn’t assume any prior knowledge. I was surprised at how informal (I wouldn’t say relaxed!) the interview was, a good sign was that I came out thinking how much I had enjoyed it.